Enid Blyton …

The popular English children’s writer Enid Blyton published over 750 books during a 50 year career. Over 500 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide and translated into around 90 languages.

Blyton wrote 6000 – 10,000 words a day, which enabled her to keep up her prolific output.
Her daily routine varied little over the years. She began writing shortly after breakfast with her portable Imperial typewriter on her knee while sitting in her study or in the garden and her favourite red Moroccan shawl nearby; she believed that the colour red acted as a mental stimulus for her.
Stopping only for a short lunch break she continued writing until 5 o’clock.
She typed with speed and accuracy using only her two forefingers.

She once explained, “I shut my eyes for a few minutes, with my portable typewriter on my knee – I make my mind a blank and wait – and then, as clearly as I would see real children, my characters stand before me in my mind’s eye … the first sentence comes straight into my mind. I don’t have to think of it – I don’t have to think of anything.”

Enid lived and wrote in several houses including Elfin Cottagein Beckenham and Old Thatch at Bourne End. Her most famous work was mostly written at a property called Green Hedgesin Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.
Follow this link for a Pathe News clip dated 1946 about Enid Blyton at home in Green Hedges.

Enid Blyton and her stories have often been the subject of some controversy over the years but she is without doubt one of the greats in children’s literature and well loved by children all over the world. She died in 1968 aged 71. Her books continue to sell at a rate of over 8 million copies worldwide each year.

For more information on her life and work visit the Enid Blyton Society.
Also the excellent biography Enid Blyton: The Biographyby Barbara Stoney is very well worth reading.

A film about her life called Enidstarring Helena Bonham-Carter in the title role was released in 2009 and is available on DVD. Compulsive watching.